Page 41 of Promised to the Cowboy

“I’ll be there,” I say.

A bucket scrapes against concrete behind us.

Both our heads turn.

Evie comes around the corner carrying fresh feed for Captain Winky.

Ethan smiles, waves at Evie, and leaves like his ass is on fire. The fucker.

Evie sets the bucket down. She looks at the empty space where Ethan was, then back at me. “What was that?”

I rub the back of my neck. “Ranch business.”

“What kind of ranch business?”

“The boring kind.”

She folds her arms. “Judging by the looks on your and Ethan’s faces, I don’t think it was.”

No. It wasn’t.

For a second, I consider lying. But I can’t—won’t—do that to Evie. She deserves the truth.

“You’re right.”

She waits.

I blow out a breath. “Daniel and Henry have called a family meeting tomorrow at Havenridge.”

“Henry is your eldest cousin, right?” she asks.

“Right.” I filled her in on my cousins after we told the family we were pregnant last week. “The last time both ranches got together, Jenna laid out everything she’d uncovered. Shell companies buying up land around us. Lawyers working through different corporations. Purchase offers coming in under different names.”

Her brow furrows. “Purchase offers?”

I nod. “Stoneridge. Havenridge. Neighboring ranches too. Folks who’ve been here for generations getting letters pressuring them to sell.”

“So someone’s trying to buy up all the land?”

I nod. “They have been for years.”

“But... why?”

“Jenna figured that part out.” I lean back against the fence. “There’s gold and lithium under a lot of this valley. Enough that somebody decided the easiest way to get to it was to own the land sitting on top.”

Her eyes widen. “You’re serious.”

“I wish I wasn’t.”

She looks across the pasture toward the mountains. “So they just... keep making offers until somebody gives in?”

“That was the plan.”

“And when people didn’t?”

I hesitate.

Her eyes narrow. “What?”